閱讀理解

From bankers to factory staff, employees in the West face a cold prospect of losing their jobs as a

global recession(衰退) starts to bite. For colleagues in the East, the pain is more likely to come through

a pay cut.

Human resource experts say cultural differences explain why Asian companies try harder to preserve

jobs in difficult times, which will prevent unemployment and may help Asian economies survive at a time

of slowing exports. The East Asian attitude may also make it easier for companies to recover quickly

from the economic downturn since they will not need to rehire or train new staff, but build up a more

loyal and devo ted group.

"In the Confucian mindset(儒家思想), the right thing to do is to share the burden, which is the sense

of collective responsibility. While in the West, it's more about individual survival," said Michael Benoliel,

associate professor of organizational behavior at Singapore Management University (SMU).

In contrast, local Western companies from General Motors to Goldman Sachs plan to lay off

workers by the thousands, but at the Asian units of Western multinationals or western units of Asian

groups, job cuts will probably be less severe.

Japan's jobless rate was 4 percent in September, up from 3.8 percent in January, while Hong

Kong's was flat at 3.4 percent. But US unemployment is expected to have jumped to 6.3 percent last

month from below 5 percent in January.

Experts say that while there are noticeable differences in labor practices in East and West, the gap

will narrow as more firms become more multinational and competition forces firms to adopt the best

practices of rivals(對手) from abroad.

1. The underlined word "prospect" in the first paragraph most probably means _________.

A. weather

B. scene

C. future

D. place

2. Compared with job cuts, pay cuts can bring the following benefits EXCEPT that _________.

A. it's helpful to the economy recovery

B. it costs the company less money to survive

C. it will keep the experienced and skilled workers

D. it can form a team working harder and more loyally

3. According to Michael Benoliel, the Confucian mindset focuses on _________.

A. human rights

B. sharing responsibility

C. personal profits

D. individual survival

4. In which company can we infer the job cuts will be probably the most severe?

A. A local American group.

B. A small Japanese company.

C. A German branch of a Korean multinational.

D. A Hong Kong's unit of a French company.

5. The passage mainly tells us ________.

A. the difficulties all the companies around the world will meet with today

B. the cultural differences between Eastern and Western world at present

C. the ways to cut down the cost of the companies in economic downturn

D. the different labor solutions of Asian and Western in global recession